Every summer since 2002, Christian Eiroa releases a special summer cigar in the Liberty brand. The Camacho Liberty 2009 was released in July of 2009, and only 40,000 of these were made. The filler and binder are grown in the Eiroa’s farm in Jamastran, Honduras. For those lucky enough to have a cigar from each release, this would be an interesting comparison among all of them. This is my first experience with the Liberty brand.

Appearance : The cigar is a nice semi dark chocolate; although the cigar looked dull, it felt like it was very soft to the touch.

The cigar comes in a very nice wooden coffin, and each cigar is numbered; this one was cigar number 27,143 out of 40,000. Each cigar also comes individually wrapped in tissue paper.

The cigar featured two bands: one at the foot and the traditional one closest to the head. The band at the foot had “Liberty 2009” written on it, and it featured a crown and the red “C” trademarked by Camacho cigars.

The band at the head was much larger in size than traditional bands; it was pretty elaborate featuring red, black, gold, and white colors and other designs.

Construction : The cigar featured 2.5 veins running the length of the cigar. It also seemed that it was double capped, although a third cap may be present and just very difficult to see.

One soft spot was noticed towards the middle of the cigar; however, the cigar felt very firm to the touch.

The cigar had a pretty easy draw both on pre-light and during the smoke.

During the smoke, the cigar burned pretty even for the first third of the cigar; after that, I experienced a canoeing effect; this was disappointing, especially for such a pedigreed cigar. The ash looked light grey, and it seemed a bit loose as the cigar felt tightly packed to the touch. The cigar was pretty smoky, and the smoke rose and dissipated rather quickly.

Flavor : This cigar featured quite a complex flavor profile. On pre-light, raisins were tasted on the draw; a slight hint of sweet spices were also detected. A light spice was felt on the tongue.

The cigar was cut with a Boston Cigar Company “Little Guy” V-cutter, and the first draw feature roasted nuts and coffee flavors. On retrohale, some woody notes (oak), were also found.

Towards the second half of the cigar, the oak and coffee notes became more pronounced, and to me, they became more balanced.

I would say that the cigar started out as a full strength cigar, but then, it seemed to mellow out as the smoking experience continued.

Value : This is, by no means, a cheap smoke. It is what I call a “special occasion” cigar. To determine its true value, one should smoke other cigars in the Liberty brand and compare the smoking experience to the 2009. I typically do not have these high end smokes in my humidor, but I wanted to try these Camacho Liberty series cigars. I tried getting the 2008 release, but the release seems to be sold out.

One thing I can say is that for ~$20.00 per cigar, I would have expected the construction to be a bit better. The flavor profile brings a good value to the cigar.

Overall Rating : The Camacho Liberty 2009 release is a good smoke considering the price per cigar. The complex, yet balanced flavors, upset the construction issues encountered in the cigar. My expectations for this cigar were very high, and to me, such a hyped-up, expensive cigar should just be perfect.

However, it was a very pleasant and enjoyable smoke. If you can find them, grab a few and compare them to next year’s release. A fun exercise would be to revisit the 2009 release and compare it to the 2010 one. The 2008 would have been fun to get as it features a barber pole wrapper, but I was not so lucky. So, I will sit tight and wait until July for the next release of the brand.

Looking forward to torching the one that I do have—Webby hooked me up with an 07 some time back and really liked it-the price of this blend should be excellent and Camacho will hopefully do something about it-nice review!

This has been one of my favorites over time, but one I did not enjoy that much when they came out as I thought the potent filler overwhelmed the spicy sweetness of the Cameroon wrapper.

The wrapper has a beautiful oily sheen to it, along with the requisite tooth that is a characteristic to Cameroon leaf.

The draw was nice and easy, but almost immediately after lighting, the burn started to canoe. camacholiberty06

Flavor-wise, I actually noticed the Cameroon flavors right away, which was different than what I experienced when these first came out. I was greeted with sweet and spicy cinnamon with a hint of cocoa and licorice.

As I was nursing the burn back even, the licorice flavors intensified and this really started to get good!

The last third was delicious: Cocoa, coffee and licorice oh my!

It was a little dry on the finish, but that’s kind of a Cameroon thing, and the cigar was dangerously close to “overheating” a few times, but I really enjoyed it! I can’t give it as high of a score as I want to as the construction and heat issues need to be subtracted from the overall score.

These are interestingly shaped cigars; they are the traditional Camacho 11/18 shape, which is a bulbous perfecto without the pointed ends. The Liberties also are supposed to have pre-embargo Cuban tobacco in them, but I’m sure only in little “sprinkles”. The wrapper is very, very dark which makes you think this will be a strong cigar, but most Liberty blends are smoother and a little less spicy than it’s Corojo cousin.

This dark rich looking cigar starts very unassuming, mellow Honduran earthiness with a touch of wood. I am drinking a glass of one of my favorite single-malts, Isle of Jura, when about an inch down it really opens up. I’m not sure if it was just it’s time or the scotch but I am suddenly greeted by rich mocha flavors and a subtle spice on the sides of my tongue.

(By the way, if you have not yet tried Isle of Jura yet and you like single-malts, do yourself a favor!)

As I was enjoying in the deluge of flavors I noticed the draw start to give way… too much. I looked down the foot of the cigar and sure enough I had a tunnel. This occurred when the tapered end opened up to the largest part of the cigar, proving how difficult these shapes are to roll.

The tunneling was short-lived but heated the cigar up enough to produce some sour flavors. It quickly righted itself and was again generous with coffee and cocoa. The spice disappeared for a while but came back as I reached the last quarter. The last 1/4 was robust and spicy: pepper, mocha and wood were all prominent.

Overall, this was a good cigar, but the tunneling really detracted from my overall enjoyment.